Thread: Frigid Northern China Hosts Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival

HARBIN, CHINA —
The city of Harbin in China's frigid northeast is hosting one of the world's largest festivals featuring ice sculptures of animals, cartoon characters and famous landmarks.

The festival, which officially opens late Thursday and last year drew more than a million visitors, showcases the region's tradition of snow and ice carvings as well as ice swimming in the Songhua River. Harbin's temperatures can fall to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit).

Harbin's best ice and snow carvers have been busy putting the finishing touches to their sculptures, which are based on big chunks of ice that are dragged out of the nearby river and carved, brushed, and lit up.

The sculptures range from animals and cartoon characters to replicas of famous world monuments and landscapes, as well as a 340-meter (1,115-feet)-long slide that state media say took around 500 builders to complete.

Lu Fu was helping to finish a giant ice castle on a busy roundabout in Harbin, brushing it with a small rake.

“I feel happy. Especially after completion, I feel so excited when looking at the ice wall with lights on in distance,” said Lu, who has been carving ice for more than 20 years. “Ice building is the pride of Harbin people.”

Frigid Northern China Hosts Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival

Students from Thailand Brave Freezing Temperatures to Win First Prize in Snow Sculpture Contest



HARBIN – When it comes to snow sculptures, Thailand isn’t the first place that comes to the minds of most people in the northern hemisphere, but Students from Thailand have won first prize and four more awards in the 9th International Collegiate Snow Sculpture Contest in Harbin, China.
The winning sculpture, entitled Water–Fish–Paddy Field–Rice, was created by a four-member team from Ubonratchathani Vocational College in the northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand.
Four students from Thailand braved the minus 25 degrees Celsius weather and worked day and night to try to complete the sculpture.
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Despite their first experience competing abroad, the students from Ubon Ratchathani Vocational College have successfully brought home a New Year’s gift for their hometown and the nation, winning Top Grade Awards and Thailand’s eighth title at the 9th International Collegiate Snow Sculpture Contest 2017.
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Two other Thai teams took home four more awards from the same competition.
Suratthani Vocational College from Surat Thani province was awarded second place for an ice sculpture named Sufficiency Economy, and Bangkok-based Saowabha Vocational College won third place, plus Best Skill and the Popular Vote for a work themed The Heart of Thailand.

Student?s from Thailand Brave Freezing Temperatures to Win First Prize in Snow Sculpture Contest | Chiang Rai Times English Language Newspaper